Asus won the bidding war to manufacture the pure-Android tablet, apparently, beating out Samsung, which previously produced not only the Nexus 10 but also multiple other models of Nexus phones and tablets.

And while Google and Samsung are massive partners, they’re also even more massive potential enemies. The fact that Samsung sold 400 million phones last year and more smartphones than LG, Lenovo, ZTE, HTC, and Huawei combined this past quarter gives it massive clout in the Android ecosystem.

Above: Android market share by manufacturer — Q2 2013 (IDC numbers)

Image Credit: John Koetsier

The fact is that if Samsung were ever able to take control of Android on its devices the same way Amazon has taken Android and created its own devices with its own mobile operating system plugging into its own digital content ecosystem, Google would be in serious trouble, and the entire vision of owning the global consumer’s digital lifeline to the Internet could go up in smoke.